A rioter who climbed on a PSNI Land Rover then placed a plastic bag over a CCTV camera recording ongoing disorder was spared jail on Friday.
John Edward Alexander Blair, 33, was handed a two-year sentence, which was suspended for three years, at Belfast Crown Court - more than a decade after the trouble he was involved in.
The father-of-two, from Fairfax Road in Cirencester, England, admitted his involvement in the riot which broke out on July 1, 2011. During the intense street disorder in the Newtownards Road area of Belfast, crowds gathered and missiles including petrol bombs were launched.
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Several police vehicles were damaged during the riot, and samples of blood were taken from a roof-mounted CCTV camera on top of a Land Rover.
The blood was analysed which led to Blair being interviewed by police in England in April 2012 about the riot in Belfast the previous summer. When he was shown footage, he admitted his guilt and apologised to police.
Blair was arraigned in April 2013 when he pleaded guilty to a charge of rioting. Sentencing was adjourned to March 2014 and when Blair failed to attend the hearing in Belfast, a warrant was issued.
Blair has since claimed that he booked a ferry to Belfast to attend the sentencing but the ferry was cancelled, and that when he didn’t hear anything after March 2014, he assumed some form of non-custodial sentence had been imposed in his absence.
In October this year, it emerged police were seeking Blair. The warrant was executed on November 18, Blair was arrested and he has been in Maghaberry since.
Defence barrister John O’Connor spoke of the obvious delay between the offence being committed and Blair’s arrest - and said that in this period his client was “living in plain sight” in England.
Regarding the offence, Mr O’Connor said Blair’s role was limited to climbing on top of the police vehicle and placing the bag over the camera.
The defence barrister told Judge Philip Gilpin that Blair is now a “very different person to the one he was back in 2011” and said that when released, he intends to return to his partner in England and employment.
Addressing Blair on the videolink, Judge Gilpin said he had pleaded guilty to a serious offence and one which carried a prison sentence. Noting several unusual aspects about the case, including the lengthy delay, Judge Gilpin imposed a two-year sentence which he suspended for three years.
Telling Blair “you do not have to serve any further time in custody”, the Judge warned him of the consequences of breaching the court order.
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